


The Myth of Gravity

by Lady_Anonymia



Category: Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them (Movies), Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: F/M, Post-Canon, no beta we die like men, sibling relationships are really underexamined and written about, which is a shame because i love them
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-18
Updated: 2018-11-18
Packaged: 2019-08-25 08:22:20
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,332
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16657546
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lady_Anonymia/pseuds/Lady_Anonymia
Summary: Mandarin Chinese translation, courtesy of hotaru980936: http://lily980936.lofter.com/post/1d63245e_12cec5117Two brothers, a war hero and a zoologist, sit in a room over tea and discuss the life-changing events that have recently transpired. It sounds like the set-up to a joke or a riddle, doesn't it?Just a simple conversation between Theseus and Newt Scamander, semi-estranged brothers who are trying very hard to become less estranged than they were before.





	The Myth of Gravity

**Author's Note:**

> Fantastic Beasts 2 was confusing in a lot of places, but it was such a good time and I loved the introduction of Newt's brother! I had to write something about the both of them because, honestly, I am a sucker for a good sibling relationship, sue me. Un-beta'd and finished at 1:30 a.m., so steel yourself for any egregious errors I may have made.

“Yes?”

There was no response from whoever had knocked. Theseus sighed and was about to speak again when the door opened hesitantly. A familiar head of tousled red hair peeked through the door.

“Am I bothering you?”

“No, not at all.” Theseus pushed aside his paperwork and stood from his desk, waving his brother in. “Come in, come in.”

“Sorry, I’ll only be a minute,” Newt said, rushing through his words as his suitcase banged against the doorframe, “have to Apparate to Carmarthenshire and catch a horse into the Brechfa Forest; they won’t let you Apparate in, see, because it disturbs the wildlife, and there’s a particular type of Pyll Wyrm that spawns this time of year that I haven’t had a spare moment to—”

Newt stopped at Theseus’ look of confused amusement. “Yes, well, uh, I just wanted to say goodbye, I’ll be off, then—”

Theseus stopped his panicked retreat with a hand on his shoulder. “Just stay for a moment, Newt. I haven’t seen you in...how long’s it been?”

“I really couldn’t say,” Newt replied, as he allowed himself to be guided into a chair. Theseus sat across from him at a small table with sugar cubes and creamer on it.

Theseus slid his wand from his breast pocket and waved it, summoning a tea-kettle and cups.

“Tea?”

“No, no, don’t bother.”

Theseus poured him a cup anyways, and added two sugar cubes.

“You look surprised,” he notes, pouring his own tea—black, of course.

“Well, yes, I-I suppose I didn’t think you’d remember—”

“Remember how my own brother took his tea?” Theseus gave him a disbelieving look. “I did grow up in the same house as you, Newt, for all of my childhood. And went to to the same school as you, for five more years. It’s not as if I’ve forgotten everything about you.”

They sat in silence for a moment. Theseus didn’t notice how Newt’s hands trembled ever so slightly.

“So, you spoke to Dumbledore,” Theseus started, and he could feel Newt clamming up.

“Yes, I did, and I’m under no obligation to tell you what he said.”

“Newt—”

“I told you I wasn’t going to work for the Ministry, Theseus, and I meant it, officially or otherwise.”

“Alright, alright.” Theseus raised his hands in surrender. “I’m not asking as a Ministry man, just as a person who never understood—”

“Never understood his interest in me?” Newt finished defeatedly.

“Never understood _him_ ,” Theseus corrected. “The man behind the talent and the charisma. What he was _hiding_. I always felt like he was...more than he was letting on.” He chewed on a nail thoughtfully, before continuing. “His interest in you was self-explanatory. Dumbledore was always fond of the exceptional.”

Newt gave a nervous, sarcastic laugh. “Dumbledore was— _is_ —fond of  _outcasts_. Eccentrics, troublemakers. People too smart for their own good. That’s why he took an interest in me and—” He stopped himself, looking ashamed.

“And Leta.” Theseus finished grimly.

Newt glanced at his brother and quickly looked away apologetically. “I never said how sorry I was for you.”

“You didn’t need to.” Theseus smiled genuinely, albeit with an unfocused gaze. “...did you love her?”

“Uh,” Newt replied coherently, “You mean, did I—Leta?”

Theseus nodded, and Newt struggled visibly with what to say next, his face contorting as he worked out whatever it is he wanted to say. Newt is witty, and has no problem with making sharp jabs at those he dislikes (even more so as of late—Theseus himself had been a target for a few), but of the both of them he always thought more about what to say. Newt was introspective; Theseus was a man of action with a thin brain-to-mouth filter.

“I cared for her, certainly,” Newt settled on, after a moment. “Maybe when I was younger, I...but not now.” He was lying a bit—it was only last year that Queenie had questioned him about Leta’s picture hanging in his suitcase, only last year that he’d still been pining for her like a schoolboy again—but Theseus didn’t have to know that.

“And what about the other girl?” Theseus asked, seeming to come back to himself.

“What—what other girl?”

“The girl who tied me up,” he elaborates, and the smile he was expecting alights on his brother’s face.

“Yes, Tina’s quite, um, forceful,” Newt says, looking very dreamy.

“Tina, eh?” Theseus steepled his fingers. “Are you dating her?”

“Sorry?” Newt cleared his throat and shook his head, blushing faintly under his sea of freckles. “I—oh, no, no, no, she’s, uh, already... _with_...someone. A-an Auror. American.”

“Ah.”  He shot Newt a wry grin. “No plans to win her back?”

Newt’s light blush darkened to a deep red.

“Well, I think she’s good for you. She’s certainly clever, and she’s got a strong spirit. Seems very fond of you, as well. You’ll just have to make sure you stay on her good side, eh? Otherwise she’ll be tying _you_ up next.”

The clock on the wall stuck the hour, and the loud chiming shocked Newt out of his embarrassment. He grabbed his suitcase and stood up, nearly knocking the table over and apologizing profusely as the sugar cubes and his cup are catapulted from the table.

“I didn’t mean to stay so long, I really should be going—,” he stammered, digging in his pockets for his wand, but Theseus waved his and the mess is gone.  

“Before you go,” Theseus began, and Newt stopped on his way out the door, hearing the rare vulnerable note in his older brother’s voice.

“I just wanted to say I’m sorry, Newt.”

“For—for what?” he responds, confused.

“For...for the Ministry, I think. I’m bound to serve, but I don’t think I did the right thing trying to track you down when Grindelwald was both our enemies. We should’ve been working together, not against each other.”

“Yes, well, the Ministry’s never been very rational, has it?” Newt said, but his face became softer. “You’re a good Auror, Theseus. You just have to make everyone else see that killing isn’t always the answer.”

“Even more than that, though,” Theseus pressed on, “I’m sorry for not letting you be _you_. You’re the one that’s going to stop Grindelwald—not me, not Dumbledore, not anyone else—and I should’ve trusted that you knew what you were doing, even if I didn’t understand it.”

“That’s the thing though, isn’t it?” Newt gave him a wan smile. “I don’t want to be the one to stop Grindelwald. I don’t know what on earth I’m supposed to be doing. I just—I had friends, and I had this—” he gestures to the briefcase in his hand—“and I didn’t want anything else. I _don’t_ want anything else. No perilous adventures, no life-threatening circumstances. No deaths. Just...” He trailed off, thumbing the worn brass of the suitcase’s handle.

Theseus mirrored Newt’s expression. “Sometimes wars come looking for us, and when they do we’ve no choice but to fight back, for all the people who can’t fight for themselves.” Newt averted his eyes, sagging a little. For a moment, he looked very small, wearing his long coat and holding a bulky suitcase with a functional zoo inside of it. 

Theseus brought Newt into a tight hug, which Newt attempted valiantly to return with his free arm.

“Be safe, little brother,” Theseus said quietly. “It’s a different world out there nowadays.”

When he released him, Newt looked like he had something he wanted to say, but shook his head and leaves, head down. He closed the door softly behind him.

Theseus sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose. He took a deep breath and massaged his temples before sitting back at his desk, sifting through the letters and local newspapers piled messily on top of it.

“Gellert Grindelwald,” he murmured, lifting a letter from the stack and eyeing the distinctive wax seal on its back, “where are you hiding...?”

**Author's Note:**

> Kudos and comments are appreciated, and (as always) thank you for reading! I'd love to hear your thoughts on Fantastic Beasts, whether it's your theories on the supercaliwhatthefuckisexpialidocious reveal at the end of the movie or your anger that we didn't see more of the baby Nifflers (bc tbh I was mad we didn't see more of them, they were cute as heck)


End file.
